UI and string freeze break request for unlinking meta-contacts in Empathy

[Philip Withnall <philip withnall collabora co uk>]

Hi all,

I'm requesting string and UI freeze breaks for Empathy to fix two bugs
which relate to the discoverability of the unlinking functionality in
Empathy. This functionality allows the user to unlink a meta-contact so
that they get back the contacts they originally linked together. i.e.
It's undo for meta-contacts.

The “Unlink” button is currently positioned on the contact editing
dialogue, but after some discussion we've decided that it would be a lot
more logical and discoverable to put it on the linking dialogue itself.
This would make the unlinking functionality easier to discover, and save
users having to hunt around for it in the rare case that they need to
use it. The button would have a confirmation dialogue added, and its
label changed accordingly (adding an ellipsis).

The second change is to re-label the menu entry which activates the
linking dialogue, accesible by right-clicking on a contact in the
contact list. It's currently “Link…”, but we think its meaning would be
clearer if it was changed to “Link Contacts…”.

The discussion took place on the following two bugs, and patches are
posted there:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=628376
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=628377

The following two screenshots show the “before” and “after“ of moving
the “Unlink” button from the contact editing dialogue to the linking
dialogue:

http://people.collabora.co.uk/~pwith/empathy-before-moving-unlink-button.png
http://people.collabora.co.uk/~pwith/empathy-after-moving-unlink-button.png

This is better done now than next cycle, as it significantly enhances
the discoverability of the unlinking functionality.

In summary, we request to:
 • move the “Unlink” button from one dialogue to another, keeping its
functionality the same;
 • add a confirmation dialogue to the “Unlink” button to prevent
accidental unlinking. This requires new strings;
 • add a tooltip to the “Unlink” button to briefly explain its
functionality. This also requires a new string;
 • change the menu entry for the linking dialogue from “Link…” to “Link
Contacts…”.

This would result in the following new/changed strings:
 • “_Link Contacts…”
 • “_Unlink…”
 • “Completely split the displayed meta-contact into the contacts it
contains.”
 • “Unlink meta-contact '%s'?”
 • “Are you sure you want to unlink this meta-contact? This will
completely split the meta-contact into the contacts it contains.”

Sorry for having to request a freeze break this far into the freezes,
but we believe this is a useful change.

Thanks,
Philip